HOOVER, Alabama - Students at Gwin Elementary School in Hoover today are celebrating International Day with a tribute to the 33 countries represented by students and their families there.

The day started off with a parade of flags in the gym in which students, dressed in traditional attire from their families' countries of origin, carried the flags for those countries into an assembly in the gym.

Students also were treated to a song from a Chinese opera performed by Birmingham area residents who are descendants of the Chinese royal family and a prominent Chinese general. And three dancers performed a tribal fusion dance with a European and Middle Eastern flair.

Throughout the rest of the day, students are spending time rotating through other international activities, including an international fashion show in the library in which students model traditional attire from various countries as a teacher shares facts about the country and the clothing worn there.

Students are getting to learn about and re-create the famous Spanish "Running of the Bulls" in the gym, learn French words and see a short French play, and learn how to do the tribal fusion dance they saw in the gym.

The school day is to conclude with an international food tasting.

Gwin Elementary International Day HOOVER, Alabama - Students at Gwin Elementary School in Hoover, Alabama took part in an International Day that allowed students to experience sights sounds, fashion and food from other countries. (Jon Anderson and Frank Couch/fcouch@al.com)

"We are so proud of the many countries that are represented by our school here at Gwin," Principal Kimberly White said.

Gwin has more than 100 students with family connections to other countries, said Wendy McBride, one of the school's teachers who work with students who speak English as a second language.

About 50 percent of those students were actually born in another country, while 40 percent have parents who were born in another country, McBride said. The rest either have grandparents from another country or strong cultural ties to another country, she said.

Gwin students speak nine languages in addition to English, which is about half as many languages as the school once had, McBride said. "We're not as diverse as we used to be."

Other than English, the most common language is Spanish, but other students speak languages such as Arabic, Kikulu, Swahili, Chinese, Farsi and French, McBride said.

"To us, the beautiful part is - this is America right here," she said.

At one point in the assembly this morning, all the students with international ties held up blue posters with white stars. "We're just trying to symbolize that this is the United States of America," McBride said.

Hoover Mayor Gary Ivey told the students that Hoover has a very diverse population and that he is glad to see teachers and students taking time out to celebrate that diversity. Every country has a lot of good, and if America can just take the good of each country and leave the bad behind, we can together keep the United States a great country, he said.

"America is a great melting pot for immigrants," he said. "We need to recognize that and learn from it and make the best of it."

Jingqiao Yang, a mother of 7-year-old twin boys at Gwin, came to the Birmingham area from China with her husband about 10 years ago so he could pursue his medical career at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She said the International Day program was awesome.

"What a wonderful experience," she said. "Everybody needs to have pride in their country. I'm so proud of my country and this school - the parents and teachers, everybody."

Brandon Reyes, a Gwin fourth-grader whose family came from Mexico, said it surprised him that so many kids were from different countries. Though he was born in Texas, he is proud of his family's Mexican heritage, and it's good to learn things about other countries, he said.

Esther Wambui, a fifth-grader who was born in Kenya, today wore Masai clothes -- traditional Kenyan dress. She found it interesting that men in Mexico frequently wear bright colors, she said.

Gracie Sears, a fifth-grader whose grandparents came from Cuba, said it's neat that she can learn so much about other countries while at school. "I have a few friends from Indian and Iran, and I met them all here," she said.

International Day has even given her a chance to learn more about her family's heritage, she said.

"We have a very cool country and very colorful clothes since it's always hot. Right now, it's probably like 90 degrees down there," Sears said. "They have a lot of books here (at school) about Cuba. I read them to get an idea for my clothes."

International Day at Gwin is designed not to just teach students about other countries, but to help students take a sense of pride in their country of origin and in America, McBride said.

Hopefully, it will open the world to them so they'll want to go see the wonderful world in which we live, she said.